Imitation leather.



M. PIANKO.

IMITATION LEATHER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 27, 1907.

Patented Mar. 23, 1909.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Mamet-Prime, or cmcaeo, tuNo aassIoNoR To ROBERT A. NEILSON aNDWILLIA-M F. NEILSON, or CHICAGO, armors. 4

mim'rron LEATHER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MENDEI. PIAXKO, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State 5 of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Imitation Leather, of which the following is a clear, fulhand exact description. v Heretofore it has been customary to make imitation leather by using a textile fabric, such as drilling or canvas, and applying thereto boiled oil, or a mixture of pyroxylin and oil, reduced to such a thickness, that, when applied, it permeates the weave of the fabric and acts as a filler for the same. The

objection to the product thus made and partieularly to imitation leather foibook covers, etc. was that, when finished, it lacked the necessary flexibility, and superficial soft- 2o ness and became, owing to the ca illary action of the fiber of the textile fabric, dry and hard, and, unless made with extreme care and the best of materials, would crack and wear away, so that the weave of the supg5 porting fabric would become exposed and a present a very unattractive appearance.

The ob'ectof my invention is to produce an imitation leather made of the. ab ve me'ntioned'materials or their equivalents, which will be just as easy and economical to manufacture; will possess a cushion under the layer and between it and the fabric which will give it greater flexibility, durability, softness to the touch, will receive an impression which will be enduring, and will be very pleasing and natural in appearance: substantially as hereinafter l'ully described, and as articularly pointed out in thy claim.

11 the draningsr-Jigure I shows a sec- 4 o. tion, on an enlarged scale, of a fragment of Fig. 2 is a my improved imitation leather. etail view, on an enlarged scale, showing a section of the textile body fabric employed in the construction of the same. In the drawings A represents a suitable textile fabric, such as drilling, canvas ore uivalent material, the surfaces (1 a, of which are provided with a nap or fuzz, as for example Ii 0 the soft side of canton flannel,

either during the process of weaving, by the interminglin of a suitable material with the interwoven threads of the fabric, or by subjecting the surface of the fabric to the action of abradin or roughening devices or mechanism, or ot erwise. I apply to one or both Specification of Letters fatent. I Patented. March 28', 1909. Application filed .Tune 27, 1907. Serial No. 381,110.

f sides of this fabric a layer of hard boiled .oil

i or a mixture of pyroxylin and other oils, that has been reduced to the thickness of gum,

and spread the same upon the fabric so that V the na or fuzz or loose fibers of the surface (so ior. surfitces thereof will enter the said layer I and be'knit into the same, only toa limited 5 extent so that there will remain a minute space-between the roots of the nap and the inner surface of said layer within which the 5 fibers or nap form a cushion that holds the, coagulum out from the fabric and protects I the latter while permitting the former to .reccive and retain an impression or emboss- 5 mentthat will be indestructible, and .not so that the said surface layers B will enter and permeate the interwoven woof and weft'of the fabric, to the extentthat heretofore was intentionally done. Someof the material 1 of the surface layers, B,-1nay; sift into the ini tcr'sticcs of the interwoven threads of the i 3 fabric A and some of its constituent in re- -dients may be absorbed by said threadsfbut this is an accident of construction and it is an object of my inventionto avoid this result. 30 to as great an extent as possible. When this made the surface layers B, B, 'of the material will be cushioned, as it were, against the surface or surfaces of the fabric A, and

will be soft, because retaining more of its con- 35 fabric, A, itself, will be more flexible, while 9t) I at the same time the surface layers B, B, will be thoroughly knit andsecurcd to the same. in view of the thickness of the surface layers B my improved imitation leather will receive and retain superficial cmbossmentor impression better than it has hcretoforebccn possible todo, and will last much longer, and

5 this is due largely to the fact that the layers B only receive and are affected by the exterior impression while the body fabric is not.

As a covcrin,= for furniture or books it rcmams fresh and does not show wear as does other imitation leather of this kind now in use.-

; to a certain extent, prove satisfactory. All 110 I do not wish to be confined to the use of a such changes I desire to be understood as over the entire area thereof sufficient to per? considering Within the scope of myinvention. mit of a slight independent movement of What I claim' as new is Y each relative to the other. As an article of, manufacture an imitation In testimony whereof I have hereunto set 5 leather consisting of a. flexible textile body my hand and seal this 13th day of June,

fabric the surface of which is provided with I A: D. 1907.-

projecting fibers or nap, a surface layer of I I? 1 V 3 suitable material cushioned upon and se- MEADLL PIAAhO' cured su erfioially to saidbody fabric by said Witnesses: nap or fi bers, and a minute space between FRANK I). THOMASON, said fabric and layer extending substantially EDK. LUNDY. 

